Living between the venues for the 2010 Winter Games has turned out much better than anticipated.
Sure, there’s little to no snow and driving was held up for 7 years in the making but…now that it’s here, might as well enjoy it right?

We took our Daycare kids to 2 Olympic events — and they were fantastic! We had the best weather, the nicest volunteers and some pretty happy kids!

They were delighted to see the mascotsin person – convinced they know each other from waaay back. Pretty darn adorable.

One exception: At the Whistler Olympic Parkan overzealous RCMP member ‘confiscated’ my knitting to ‘destroy’ it. Here’s the dangerous knitting on that morning’s bus:

The good news is: VanOcis having my needles (yep, the volunteer and I managed to convince him to take just the needles and not the whole thing – which was a relief because it was the 2nd sock!) brought to me. That’s right: BROUGHT to ME!

I was utterly amazed by the fantastic and personal response I had when I reported what happened (I had called ahead to make sure knitting/needles were acceptable to bring and was told it was A-ok). Even in the midst of a much larger problem, VanOc took excellent care of me and that totally added to the entire Olympic Experience.

While I didn’t get to spend that day on the hill knitting, I still had a good time. The kids paid little to no attention to what was happening – and even though I tried to, I could not tell at all what was going on! (and yet they said there was not enough French…) The day was spent sliding up and down the hill overlooking the X-Country races, drinking coffee and laughing. Pretty good day I’d say. This little one crashed for about 15 minutes — all that fresh air!

Our 2nd day was at the Whistler Sliding Centre – and it was fabulous! We got seats in the bandstand above the finish line – so we had a perfect view of the athletes.

Security didn’t even blink at my knitting so…a good 4 inches was completed there and now the heel is ready to be turned on a very old WIP (can you say 2006? I knew you could)

The next morning I drove into the city for a Ravelympics Knitters Meet Up.

It was wonderful! I met lots of knitters (and failed to meet others — sorry!), had a fabulous breakfast (stuffed French Toast!), toured Sweet Georgia’s studio and scored some gorgeous yarn to commemorate the event.

Joining a table of 20 or more people knitting in public was good for the soul. 😀

A big Thank You to Lolly and Felicia for organizing this great Meet Up!

Here’s a glimpse of the studio — it’s a truly beautiful space – and that’s not even including the fibre!

This is a view of the courtyard outside the studio – those are clematis: Blooming! Clematis.

The studio was filled with natural light and the twitter of birds on the wing in the courtyard. So restful.

In ending I’ll leave you with a glimpse of my Ravelympics project (that has no chance of being completed in time, but…I learned a few new skills)

Hee hee! I’ll never forget that shy/sly grin he wore as he rationalized stealing the other tribes shoes:”Pirates pillage. Pirates steal. Pirates take advantage. We are pirates, so we pirated.”
I laughed out loud!

I am casting on a new project today:

It’s part of a challenge on the BSG Fleet Power Battle at Ravelry — so much fun! But I might be getting in over my head with all of the challenges/exchanges I’ve signed on for in the last 3 days!

I joined an awesome Scarf-along/exchange and a Granny Square exchange. And then a One Skein — but that is from your stash, so that’s cheap at least. Actually, they are all cheap. But…do I have time? Likely not.
I’ll keep you posted. :-p

Scoutleader is the name of the lady who is spoiling me during SP12 — and spoiling me she is! Look at what arrived today:

This is the most incredible package! Well beyond anything I expected.

Listen to this, there are 2 skeins of the softest Bamboo/Silk/Merino blend sock woll in vibrant, happy fall colours. Then there is a skein of 100% bamboo — it feels so much like cotton. Bamboo is really amazing stuff. I’ve never used 100% before and I’m thrilled to try it out.

There is a great sock pattern to go with the luxe bamboo & silk AND Addi Turbos! My favourite – the join is so smooth. And she is much better than I am at choosing – she sent me 40″ length. I got the 16″ length and it is a little tricky to Magic Loop with.

She also sent me the Yarn Harlot’s book At Knit’s End – my favourite and one I was thinking of borrowing from the library again! Synchronicity I’m tellin’ ya.

There are 2 pyramid teas in Earl Grey and Chai — my absolute preference in teas. And a box of scrumptious looking Caramel Latte biscotti — it’s like she knows my guilty secret: Medium Creme Caramel Lattes from the coffee shop behind my house (ok, not directly behind my house but a 3 min walk. ok, not that I’m walking).

As if that’s not enough – there are handmade stitchmarkers with the prettiest beads and a set of Narcissus notecards.

I thought it might be time for a little of the fibre here, you know, since I call it a knitting blog.
Here are the latest squares to arrive for Brandon & Denver. You’ll also notice a little seen guest – the sun! (cue angelic chorus)

Squares for Brandon & Denver’s blanket continue to arrive. Here are some of the latest to arrive:

Over the last 2 weeks I have had more people write to ask if they can contribute squares – the answer is YES! The blankets have worked out to be a little smaller than expected and so I calculated that we needed 44 more squares — 28 of which we now have.

Any squares that arrive after the completion of the 2 blankets will be used to make blankets to donate to BC Children’s Hospital. So there is no such think as being too late or having too many squares!

I just want to quickly thank everyone who has contributed to this project so far. Whether by sending a square, a hat 😉 , posting about this on your own blog or sharing your personal stories, each one of you has given of yourselves to help make this project successful and I truly appreciate it. The knitting community is a beautiful one.

Once I realized we needed some more squares I made a trip to our LYS and picked up these lovelies.

This yarn is incredible. 100% Alpaca. It is unbelievably soft and knits up into a dense fabric with excellent stitch definition that is somehow still lofty. I really wish I had oodles of money and a personal knitter, say Jared?,who could make me a Tomten with this in the green. And maybe one in the brown.

I’ve made a square from each colour – the last (read only!) projects completed during Earth. Where did 2 months go? Now we are in the Air element. Have I told you I’m afraid to knit with white? I am. I have white yarn. Some beautiful Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora – enough for Ophelia. But I’m scared I’ll wind up with grubby grayish spots (at best!) and that if I somehow make it through to an FO without catastrophe I’ll wear it once and disaster will ensue. Any words of advice?

A few weeks ago we upgraded our fish tank. Partly from necessity (imagine live fish as a table decoration at a wedding with nowhere to go once the party is over – yep. 60 of ’em. That’s how we got more fish – though not all 60!) and partly because it’s an addicting little hobby. Not that any of you would know anything about addiciting hobbies. No.
At any rate, Kira loves it. She watches the fish far more than our cats do.

It’s a really good thing we upsized tanks because this little one is needed:

After days on end of checking to see if the babies were there, I went to feed the pregnant lady fish at the end of my lunch break on Friday and what the?! Babies! Tonnes of them. Well 27 is the most I have been able to count – those little things can move.

If they all make it – and I hope they do – I’ll be starting an adoption program!

On the fibrey end, look what else arrived on Friday!

The 2nd installation of the 7 Deadly Spins. There is a handmade soap in this package that is sublime. When I tore open the info envelope I was confused. Wrath? I looked at the package again – hmmmm…chocolate, pale blue super soft cotton, bath salts, candle…Wrath?

They went with wrath’s oppposite – calm, peace. And it really worked. I’d been envisioning some blood reds, bruised purple-blue-yellow, explosive treats (not really explosive, more like Pop Rocks) but…I couldnt’ be disappointed the yarn is so soft and smells like the heavenly soap. And there’s chammomile tea and a candle. Deep breath. Release.

This reminded me that I hadn’t posted my 1st installation: Gluttony!

Great little package, just packed with extra goodies. I especially enjoyed the gourmet jelly beans. I’ve yet to use the yarn, 4 skeins of brightly coloured sock yarn meant to blend together in a gradient-rainbowy fashion, but that’s hardly surprising given the low number of FO’s on this blog!